Saturday, November 17, 2007

This is the conversation I had with a Scottish I met at a salsa brunch yesterday afternoon.

Scottish:"So what's your name?"Shu:"Shu - it's a Chinese name."Scottish:"Shu means what?"Shu:"Comfort."Scottish repeated himself:"Shu means what?"I repeated myself:"Comfort."Scottish repeated himself again.By now I was seriously confused, and then it finally occurred to me - I only found out recently that "shu" meant "what" in Arabic!!

Well, I guess it could've been worse. :)

p.s. On a separate note, apparently not everyone on our mailing list has been receiving our email spam. FYI, Q and I are looking into the problem. Thanks for your patience.

Thursday, November 1, 2007

Back in Toronto amusement park, there's this giant wooden rollercoaster that is extra scary because it can get oh-sooo-shakey, well, imagine doing that for 3 weeks, without the safety buckle - that's how Q and I bumped our way with a Honda Tiger 2000 through Indonesian islands! ;) Even though Q was an off-road virgin prior to the trip, by now he has become somewhat experienced, after a burnt-out clutch and a flat tire, both in the middle of nowhere!

During the three weeks, we essentially submerged ourselves into the rural villages and fields of the beautiful country side. I was surprised to see how organic and agricultural the life was there - we barely saw any building with more than one level! The people are very adorable, warm, friendly and, most importantly, happy! Of the four islands we travelled through (Bali, Lombok, Sumbawa and Flores), we spent over a week on the volcano-dotted Flores and it was also our favorite - gotta love the fact that the only time we had hot water bath during the week was at a hot spring. :) Don't get me wrong, it definitely wasn't an easy country by any means - the group experienced corruption, sun burn, starvation, dehydration, heat stroke and lotsa and lotsa delays. Read this solo motorcyclist's story for a better idea. On the side note, the local mosquitos had a feast over my sweet blood - at one point my bite count was over 100! Oh well, the lesson learnt is not to leave the essential purchases for the destination country - in a country like Indonesia, good luck finding contact lens solution! Here is the photo album with ~260 pics. The trip was organized by MotorTrails.nl, which means we travelled with a few other Dutch: Rob, Nicole, Erwin, Simon, Jeroen, Jan, Micheal and Joost. They were great companions and made the trip even more wonderful! Thanks to Joost for being the best tour guide there is for Indonesia. Thanks to Erwin for still laughing and singing even facing the hardest situation. Thanks to Simon for the wonderful smiles from Day 1! Thanks to Rob for being the team mechanic. Thanks to Jeroen for all the Amsteram-style funnies, including giving me a new nickname - "Spongebob"! And finally thanks to Q for driving me through all the distance and telling me that "I'm not leaving you behind!" :) Here's the team photo:

Now that we are back, Q already went back to his regular work schedule. Since I have done my fair share of travelling, I have decided that it is time to settle down more and start job searching. Wish me luck! :)